Jan 16, 2002

Final Stats| Quotes| Notes

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Terry Reynolds scored a season-high 24 points and Keith Triplett registered 18 points and nine rebounds as Toledo defeated Northern Illinois 89-80 on Wednesday night.

Sophomore forward Ricardo Thomas added 16 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals, and junior guard Nick Moore scored 13 for the Rockets (6-7, 3-1 Mid-American Conference).

Leon Rodgers led the Huskies (5-9, 1-4) with 22 points and nine rebounds. Matt Nelson scored 14, Marcus Sherwood had 13 and Julian McElroy 10 for Northern Illinois.

The Rockets remained a half-game behind Ball State (11-5, 4-1 MAC) in the MAC West Division standings following the Cardinals' 92-79 win over Bowling Green (13-2, 3-1 MAC). UT will battle the Falcons on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.

Toledo held a 14-point edge at the foul line, making 30-of-42 to 16-of-25 for Northern Illinois.

Reynolds opened the second half with a layup and a three-point play, and Triplett followed with his only three-pointer as Toledo went on a 13-2 run to take a 51-42 lead with 16:23 to play.

Northern Illinois slowly came back and tied it at 61 on Eugene Bates' layup with nine minutes remaining. Thomas scored on a layup 22 seconds later to give Toledo the lead for good.

The Rockets' lead never got higher than five points until Thomas' three-point play made it 81-75 with 1:37 to play. Toledo made 8-of-8 free throws over the final 1:14 to put it away.